Moldova have competed in five FIFA World Cup and five UEFA European Championship qualifying tournaments but never threatened to reach the finals of either. They did, however, end their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with arguably their finest result – a 5-2 victory away to a Montenegro side that had earlier led the group. It was only their fifth World Cup qualifying win compared with 11 in 48 EURO matches. Their most memorable streak of form came at the end of the UEFA EURO 2008 campaign when they claimed ten points from their last four games, including wins against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary.

Moldova's best haul to date came in preliminaries for UEFA EURO 2008, when Igor Dobrovolski's side took 12 points from 12 qualifiers, finishing fifth in the seven-team Group C. Moldova's 48 UEFA European Championship qualifiers going into the UEFA EURO 2016 competition have included 30 defeats and 11 victories – two against Georgia and San Marino plus others versus Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Malta, Wales and Finland.

Under Romanian coach Gavril Balint, Moldova opened UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying Group E with a 2-0 win against Finland – their first competitive success in almost three years – but it was to be a false dawn. Seven defeats followed before the end of the campaign, though Moldova twice beat San Marino – their 4-0 victory in the final qualifying fixture the biggest competitive victory in Moldova's history.

Did you know?In 1997 the British comedian Tony Hawks bet he could beat at tennis all 11 Moldovan players that had lost a World Cup qualifier to England; his attempt to do so became a book and then a film.

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